In These Halls
by watchusburn
Summary: It all started with a stubborn locker and some creaky bleachers.
1. Chapter 1

**This came out of nowhere. I am sitting down with my computer, my exams finally over, and I am bored out of my freaking mind and I just began to furiously type. So this a thing now. I really want to develop this, so this is going to be chapter 1. A kind of prologue. Tell me what you guys think.I don't know for some reason I really like it. I love feedback.**

 _Jude POV_

You would think that after being the new kid six times in his incredibly short 17 years of life, he would be used to this shit by now. But it never really got easier. He hated the "new kid stigma". That moment when you first walk through the doors and you feel everyone's senses heighten. It's like a sixth sense. They just know when the new kid had invaded their space. And the stares. As if the bastards had never seen a kid in a converse and a hoodie before. You would have sworn he was growing a second head or something.

What made it even worse was that it was his senior year. These kids had probably known each other since kindergarten and here he was, trying to blend into a crowd that had already been established. He was sick of it all honestly. Sick of the cliques and trying so hard to fit in.

He'd internally rolled his eyes when his new foster mom had told him to make some new friends as he had got out of the car. He was on his eighth foster home. He had been in the system since he was five years old and hopes of adoption had been long forgotten when he hit the ripe age of 12 when voices began to break and your face was not baby cute anymore. He had no longer pitied himself like the other foster kids. In his opinion he never really saw the point in lamenting about a life you could not change. So he'd accepted it that he was a ward of the state till they spit him out when he turned 18. He knew nothing of stability or roots or family or love. He saw his life as the suitcase he never unpacked, filled with little and constantly moving.

His new foster parents weren't as bad as previous ones he'd had. Surprisingly he had been taken into the home of two married women. Lena and Steph. He had no problem with living in a house with two women. Unlike a lot of the world, he didn't really see a problem with it. Love was love right? But then again, who was he talk? Love was almost a foreign concept to him. They had been pretty nice to him so far, well in the week that he had been with them. They provided him with the basic necessities like food and running water. And one would think those things were given, obvious commodities, but that was not the case in four out of the seven foster homes he had been too previously. Food was a scarce thing when your foster parents had been drug addicts who only showed up once a week and electricity and running water was luxuries when another family preferred to use their money for gambling instead of paying the bills. But he preferred not to look back on the moments when his life had been so miserable that it had been hard to think about if there was really any happiness beyond all of it.

So yeah, Lena and Steph had been alright, for now. It really did not matter though. He would be 18 in a few months and they'd probably let him go once they were no longer required to take care of him. If it was one thing he had learnt, it was to never hold on to things or people because 99.9% of the time you would be disappointed.

As he entered the doors of this new school he pulled his hoodie over his head and shoved his hands in his pockets, keeping his head down. As he walked down the hall he ignored the hushed whispers and curious looks he got. This year his motto was to be invisible. He didn't need any new friendships, he was used to being alone. All he needed to do was get through this year unscathed. He sighed as he quickly made his way to the office to retrieve his schedule.

One hundred and seventy y nine more days to go.

…..

 _Connor's POV_

You always knew when there was a new kid. The school would be abuzz with the news. For some reason a single person could set the school afire with talk.. He guessed people loved the mystery of it. A new face among the familiar and sometimes that one person could change the entire dynamic of the school or…they wouldn't. They may probably just fade into the background, after their fifteen seconds of new kid fame.

So there was a new kid. And he really did not care. Unless this new face was supposed to affect his life in some ground breaking way (which was highly unlikey) he did not see the point of speculating who it was and (In the boys case) wondering if he was athletic and if maybe he would join one of the sports teams (God knows the basketball team needed some heavenly intervention) and in the girls case, hoping the new kid would be hot. In his opinion, the guy should just be left alone. It probably sucked having to come to a new school in your senior year, adding the fact that everyone would be staring at you like you had just been transported from another planet.

Even his football team were gossiping like a group of girls about it and as the captain it was really annoying when you were trying to organize plays for Friday's game and your star running back was asking everyone if he they thought the new kid would be a nerd and if so, who would snag him first to do their homework.

He narrowed his eyes. You would never think they had a game this Friday. He gave up and got up from his place at the table they all sat it before the bell ran for school to begin. His efforts were futile. He would just have to wait tillr this new kid showed up and quenched everyone's curiosity.

He entered the halls through one of the exit doors and made his way to his locker as he politely smiled at the girls who waved to him and twirled their hair around their fingers and high fived the guys who slapped him on his back. As quarterback and captain of the football team, this was his daily life. When it had all just begun a year ago he had liked nothing better, being so popular and admired by everyone had been the best feeling. He had lived for it. What more did I guy want then the prettiest girls throwing themselves at his feet, and being the guy that everyone wanted to be.

But now, after a year of all of it and the death of his mom, he couldn't feel any more suffocated. He couldn't wait to get out. That's why he needed a scholarship and that's why he needed his team members to listen to the damn plays.

His mom's death had caused him to step back from his life and survey it. He had come to realize how petty it was and after seeing how quickly life could be taken from you he had begun to dislike what he had become. The pompous jock who thought he had the world at his fingertips. He wanted to be so much more than that. He had always remembered when his mom had called him out on it a week before she had died. He had thought he had been doing her proud.

"What happened to you," she had asked curiously and back then he hadn't understood what she meant. He remembered shrugging his shoulders in confusion and brushing her off and now when she was gone he had finally grasped what she had meant and she had been right. He had gone from a boy who had loved football with everything in his being to the guy who still loved football but also loved the parties and popularity that came with it. And he had been drowning and losing himself. So over the summer he had distanced himself from his team, only meeting up with them when they had to talk about football for the new season and he had avoided the parties and the invitations from girls to come to their empty houses when their parents weren't home. When he had come back to school on this first day he had felt his teammates curious stares and he knew they wanted to ask him what was going on but he had sideswiped any questions by trying to map out plays with them, _trying_ being a key word here.

And he finally saw him. The new kid that is, slowly weaving his way through the crowded hall, his hand gripping on what was probably his schedule. He knew it was him based on the stealthy glances people were throwing in his direction and his general awkwardness as he tried to avoid bringing any attention to him. He was an average kid, kind of tall with messy brown hair almost to his ears and a dark hoodie. He looked on as this boy searched almost painstakingly for his locker and averted his eyes when he got closer. He didn't want to add to the number of persons who were probably making this kid feel so uncomfortable. So he opened his locker and as he pulled out his chemistry book, the locker next to his surprisingly opened. In his peripheral vision he saw the brown haired kid dropping his bag to the floor and attempting in vain to pull open his locker door. After about 15 seconds of listening the guy softly grunt while trying to yank open the damn thing he sighed, so much for not caring, he thought.

He closed his locker and turned to the boy still yanking uselessly.

"Hey, you need some help?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at the boy's fingers that were now turning red.

"Um. No, no thanks," the boy muttered. Now he knew how much of a bitch the lockers in the school could be, and it took a decent amount of strength to get them open the first few times. If he did not intervene this guy would probably be here till the end of time tring to get the thing open so he stepped closer and gently pushed the boys's hands off of the locker. They were really warm he noticed.

As soon as their hands had come into contact, the unnamed boy had quickly moved his hands away, almost as if he had been shocked.

Ignoring thee guys weirdness, he placed both hands on the locker handle and using all his weight pulled on it until it unexpectedly unlatched causing him to topple backward and with astounding grace he fell on top of the new kid, both of them splayed on the floor. Well this was embarrassing. He quickly got off the floor and turned to help up the poor kid he had landed on top of. He couldn't help but notice the look of absolute mortification on the boys face as he took his hand and helped him up to his feet. So much for leaving the new kid alone.

He ran his hands through his hair, not really embarrassed but apologetic that he had brought all this attention to this guy on his first day.

"God, I'm really sorry, "he said, and he tried to smile, "but at least your locker is open."

The kid still looked pretty embarrassed but he finally made eye contact. The guys had really nice brown eyes he thought. Where was this even coming from?

The new kid shook his head, "No, it's alright, um and thanks…"

Oh right, they had missed the introductions.

"Connor,'' he said, putting out his hand.

The new kid nodded his head, "Jude," he replied, taking Connor's hand in his, with a firmer shake than he had expected. He again noticed how warm the guys' hand was and they were really soft.

This time he was the one to quickly let go as the bell rang. He had failed to notice that they now had an audience (God didn't these people have anything else better to do.)

He looked at Jude one final time, all tousled brown hair and brown eyes (and what was that weird feeling in his stomach?)

"Nice to meet you Jude," and, "and again, I'm really sorry."

That feeling in his stomach intensified when Jude gave him a very small smile, "It's fine, thanks again for opening my locker," Jude glanced around them, "But I think you should maybe leave before this turns into a circus."

He laughed, Jude was right, _everyone_ was looking now. So with one final nod to Jude, he turned around and quickly made his way to class, ignoring the crowd. He glanced back one more time to see Jude heading in the opposite direction, head ducked.

The new kid's name was Jude and why was his heart beating so fast?


	2. Chapter 2

In these Halls- Chapter 2

He'd always been good at math. For some reason he'd always liked numbers and equations. He liked the idea that there would always be an answer at the end of all the calculations, unlike his life, math never disappointed him. One topic in math that he liked in particular was probability, the measure of the likeliness that an event will occur. It was something he always applied to his daily life. He would always determine particular events on their probability, on how likely it was that they would occur in his unpredictable life.

On his first day of senior year, in a new school, he had considered the probability of something embarrassing happening to him. He had concluded that once he drew little attention to himself and avoided basically everyone, the probability of making an ass of himself would probably be pretty low. But you see now, where math can be predictable and reliable, the universe was not. Actually he was pretty sure the universe hated his guts because of course _, of course,_ on his very first day he would end up sprawled on the floor underneath the captain of the football team. It would turn out that his locker would be strategically placed next to that of not a jock, but _the_ jock of Anchor Beach. Jude would then find himself struggling to open the ancient, rusting locker that he had been assigned to while said jock rummaged through his. And of course the guy ( whose name was Connor by the way) could not live up to the jerk stereotype assigned to all jocks, but had to be nice and pleasant and help Jude pull open his locker, which opened (by some divine force) but resulted in the two of them sprawled on the floor.

He had gotten up quickly with Connor's help and dusted himself off while trying not to notice the crowd that was quickly accumulating. Though what had happened had not technically been his fault his blood ran hot with embarrassment and there was nothing more he wanted to do than to flee from the scene.

Connor had been nice enough; trying to laugh it off and Jude had smiled and thanked him if just to get away as quickly as he could. So they both parted, his head ducked as he headed to his first class.

For the first time, math, his best friend, his solace, had failed him. The probability that the captain of the football team would fall on top of him in front of nearly the entire school, causing his cheeks to burn with embarrassment?

Pretty damn high.

…

Just as he had expected, what had happened earlier spread like wildfire. By the time everyone had gathered in the cafeteria for lunch he could hear different versions of the story floating all around him.

'' _I heard the new kid tripped Connor, I mean, who does that?"_

" _I'm not sure, but I think this is pretty legit, but I heard that Connor was just trying to help the kid to open his locker and the guy went into a psychotic rage and shoved Connor to the floor. I mean, who the frick is this kid."_

And the most outrageous one yet,

" _I heard Connor was just getting something out of his locker and the new kid tackled him to the floor for no reason and threatened to kill his family."_

He rolled his eyes. God, high school was the most melodramatic place on earth.

As he sat at his table with his team he tried to ignore them as they all shot questions in his direction.

" _Did he trip you?""_

" _Is he really as crazy a s everyone says?"_

" _Dude, do you want us to beat him up?"_

He had had enough. Connor slammed his fist into the lunch table, silencing his team mates. They all looked at him in alarm.

Through gritted teeth he said, "That's not what happened. His locker wasn't opening, so I helped him. It was stuck and when it finally opened I fell back on the poor guy. That's it. He's not crazy and he did not trip me. It was my fault. I nearly crushed him. And his name his Jude. Not, the new guy, or the crazy kid but _Jude._ " He shoved his tray to the middle of the table and got up, now officially annoyed.

Ryan, the only person he could actually call a friend on this whole damn team tried to console him, " Hey man, we're sorry, we didn't know what happened. No need to freak out on us."

He frustratingly ran his hand through his hair and sighed, maybe he had kind of overreacted. All this gossip had him on edge for some reason. It's just that he hated for Jude to get a tainted reputation before he could even barely exist in this hellhole. He just seemed so…..nice. Connor was not sure why he cared so much for the wellbeing of someone he had just met but he didn't want Jude to face something he didn't deserve. And there was nothing worse than a gossiping fleet of high schoolers.

He mumbled an apology to the guys on the table and headed out of the cafeteria. There was still half an hour of lunch left and he found himself heading out to the track which surrounded the football field.

When he had first entered the cafeteria at the beginning of lunch he had found himself unconsciously scanning the cafeteria for Jude's face. He was nowhere to be seen though and now as he walked to the track, he again found himself scanning the tables outdoors, the wall where some people sat to eat and under the trees for him. Where the hell was he? And why did he care so much?

He shook his head, as if trying to clear his mind of everything. He tried to focus his mind on something else as he strode towards the field. The plays, he thought. He needed to work on plays for the game this Friday. He climbed onto the bleachers and sat down, lifting his head to the sky, allowing the midday sun to abuse his face. His mind kept floating back to the events of this morning and the small smile Jude had given him. He groaned, laying on his back and throwing an arm over his eyes. So much for thinking of other things.

"Hey," he heard suddenly. Connor removed his arm from his face and squinted, looking around him. There was no one around.

"Hey," he heard again, this time he sat up, suspiciously eyeing all around him and the field. The voice sounded oddly familiar.

"Down here." He followed the direction of the voice and as he looked down between the spaces of the bleachers he saw a pair of brown eyes staring up at him.

"Could you do me a favor and like, not move about so much on the bleachers because I'm pretty sure these things are older than me and I'm hearing a lot of creaking and I would really hate to be crushed to death on my first day."

Connor was not sure what to say to the pair of eyes besides, "What are you doing down there?"

" I prefer not to face the first class embarrassment waiting for me in the cafeteria."

Connor found himself coming down from the bleachers and circling to the back of them and sure enough, sitting in the parched grass underneath was his victim from this morning.

"Jude," he said.

"Well look at that, star quarterback remembered my name. Connor right?"

He laughed, "Yeah, its Connor."

An uncomfortable silence followed, as Connor stared at Jude and Jude tried to look anywhere but at Connor.

Jude broke the silence, "So um, yeah, I was just trying to avoid the cliché moment of having to search for a table in the cafeteria and then ending up by the trash cans." He motioned around him, " So next best option."

Connor looked at his feet, kicking the dirt with his beat up converse. He felt the need to apologize again. He looked up at Jude.

"Hey, I'm really sorry about this morning and nearly crushing you."

Jude shook his head, "It's nothing. It isn't your fault anyways. You were just trying to get open that god damn locker. Really, don't feel bad. I just prefer not to face everyone right now. I can hardly imagine what the story has transformed into."

Connor's guilt increased. He hated the social ladder. He hated that once you were popular nothing was ever your fault even when it was and how the story would bend in your favor to make you look like the victim. He'd never felt more sorry in his life.

…

Jude wasn't sure what to think at the moment. Here he had been trying to eat his turkey sandwich peacefully under the dark coolness of the bleachers when all of a sudden, Connor, the quarterback, was standing in front of him. Now he had come into contact with all kinds of jocks. The mean ones, the stupid ones, the jerks and the ones who just did not give a shit about you. But this Connor kid was a new breed. He was actually standing in front of him, _apologizing,_ again for what had happened this morning. Was this a joke? Would the rest of his team mates appear out of nowhere to gang up on him? But Connor just, _stood there,_ with the most pitiful and apologetic look on his face. So he asked him a question that had a very high probality of being answered with a no.

"Um, do you want to sit or something," he muttered, but he backtracked, "I mean you don't have to, I was just offering."

But again he was proven wrong by his probability theories once again as Connor bent his head and crouched beneath the bleachers, sitting next to him. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to say now. He wasn't usually this successful in interacting with new people on his first day of school, much less persons on top of the social ladder.

He bit into half of his sandwich, chewing slowly, aware of the warmth emanating from Connor who sat precariously close to him, their knees almost touching.

"So," he finally said, "though I don't really care, tell me what people are saying."

Connor scoffed, "You really don't want to know."

"Oh come on, I can take it."

Connor sighed, "You know how everyone likes to take a perfectly innocent story and transform it into a made for TV soap opera."

Jude laughed at that. He waited for Connor to continue.

"So apparently you are a psycho maniac who tackled me to the floor and threatened to kill my family."

Jude's eyes widened, "Your joking."

"I told you, you didn't want to know."

Jude shrugged taking another bite of his sandwich, "I've been called worst," he said in between chewing.

He felt Connor looking at him. He shouldn't have said that. The last thing he needed was a pity fest.

Changing the subject, he dug into his bag and pulled out the other half of his sandwich, offering it to Connor.

"Sandwich? "

Connor looked at him for a beat and then smiled, taking it from him, "Thanks."

He bit into it, "Hm. This is pretty good."

Jude glanced over at him, "Yeah I guess, I think my new foster parents are trying to make a good impression or something." He instantly regretted what he had said. What was with him today? He was just spewing out bits and pieces of his life to a total stranger.

Connor paused, "You live in a foster home?"

"Yeah," Jude mumbled, wanting nothing more than to skate over the topic.

"Oh, um, well you're lucky they actually make lunch for you, my mom stopped that ever since I was seven. And trust me theirs is nothing worse than Anchor Beach's lunch. I swear last term I saw the mash potatoes move on their own."

Jude laughed. Connor had instantly turned the conversation from awkward to funny. Jude hid a smile as he finished his sandwich. Somehow he felt all of this was too could to be true. Here he was, on his first day, sharing his lunch under the bleachers with a type of guy who usually would not give him the time of day. He thought of what would happen after this, if they would part from under these bleachers and never speak again or if by some burst of faith they would become actual friends.

He felt Connor nudge his leg and his breath hitched.

"Hey, you okay?" Connor asked. He had been silent for awhile.

"I'm fine," he answered.

The sunlight filtered through the stands and fell in streaks across Connor's face ad Jude couldn't help but look at how it lit up Connor's hair and eyes.

Connor caught Jude's eye and Jude was afraid he had been caught staring but Connor simply said again, "I really am sorry for embarrassing you like that."

Jude wasn't sure how to feel. No one had ever been so….apologetic to him before. This was probably the fifth time this guy was saying sorry. It tugged at something in him as he looked at these eyes that were lit up by the sun but all he could do was roll his eyes in response and dismiss Connor, "Stop apologizing. I told you its _fine_. I'm okay with being a psycho maniac, I've always dreamed of being one. Some kids want to be lawyers and doctors, but me? I just wanted to grow up to be crazy."

Connor nudged him with his shoulder, "That's not funny," he frowned.

But it kind of was and Jude glanced at Connor's frowning face and smiled because for a moment, though fleeting, he wanted to believe that he had made a friend, a very unlikely one at that, but a friend nevertheless.


End file.
